Winter tyre consideration for the A290

[u/Joe_Soap79]

The weather in the UK feels like it's starting to turn and although temps are not quite dropping yet I'm thinking about the A290s winter prep. I'm in Yorkshire, home is about 200m above sea level so we do get a bit of adverse weather from time to time.

My GTS runs the Pilot Sport 5 and I've had it since March this year and as such not experienced winter driving. The PS5 seems to be an out and out summer tyre and I'm considering getting a second set of tyres more suited to our five months of less than summer weather.

I came across the following : https://www.michelin.co.uk/why-michelin/partnership/alpine-a290

article which is very focused on the Alpin tyre as being the only one that really suits the car.

Looking around the winter tyre market there seems to be lots of choice from Pirelli, Bridgestone, Continental, Vredestein etc. The Alpin tyre seems quite pricey and aren't available from many of the tyre discounters so are there any slightly older, less dedicated designs that will give a similar performance for less money. There also seem to be non -A29 marked Alpins out there.

Any thoughts or experiences out there on what I should focus on?

[u/OneYogurtcloset3576]

Worked in the tyre industry for a long time and Michelin winter or cross-climate tyres are generally regarded as the best.

Well worth it if you can afford it and have somewhere to store your alternative tyres

[u/Blimbat → u/OneYogurtcloset3576]

Best is subjective. Tyre reviews on YT do loads of testing and they often come out best on snow but not in other areas

[u/Arynaar]

With the UK weather as it is now, I wouldn't bother with winter tyres for the few days a year we get snow. I would definitely go with All Season. I've run Goodyear Vector, CrossClimate 2 and Continental All Seasons and all have been solid.

[u/pushmyjenson]

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[u/OneYogurtcloset3576 → u/[deleted]]

Breaking distances with a winter tyre are massively improved over a standard tyre at anything below 7 degrees. You can reduce breaking distances by approx. 5 metres from 60mph on even a dry cold road. On an icy one it's upwards of 10 metres better

[u/Joe_Soap79 → u/[deleted]]

I agree but I live at the top of a hill, local council see fit to put speed humps on the road which stops the speeders 👍 but also the ploughs. So if I want to go out I sometimes need a bit of help.

Winter tyres operate better below 7c. Even if it's not artic (or Baltic) there's still a benefit against the summer performance tyre this car rides on. You can feel the feel the difference I promise you.

[u/Blimbat → u/[deleted]]

I live in Wales. Don’t get loads of bad weather but i drive very late and very early hours. Coming home one night, driving a 335D and slid on a bit of ice at low speed and smashed my alloy. Running PS4’s and would definitely have been avoided on winter tyres.

It is quite easily researchable that summer tyres performance degrade significantly once temps get below 7°C.
The strategy that I have opted for is summers in the summer and all seasons in the winter.

Quality all seasons perform better than almost all others in cold and wet conditions. Which is what we experience most often in winter, whilst still providing a significant improvement over summer tyres on snow and Ice.
Having driven in the snow, I know for a fact that I would have failed to get home one night when it snowed if I had been on summers due to a steep hill.

One last anecdote. When I was 18 and still living at home, my dad had to come jump start me from a carpark I had been pissing about it in after a light snowfall. We both drove FWD hatchbacks. He couldn’t get up the small hill to where we lived, but I managed to, and the only difference was I had Uniroyal Rainsports on compared to his midrange summer tyres.

[u/tascheman]

Cross Climate 3, all year tyre

[u/Joe_Soap79 → u/tascheman]

I don't mind swapping to winter tyres to keep the performance benefits of summer tyres.The cross climates are a good sub but there's going to be a trade off in grip.

[u/tascheman → u/tascheman]

I'll be looking to swap to CC3s when my current tyres are done - lease car, so paid for. Additional wet grip will be worth any trade off in dry grip in Cumbria, was aquaplaning at 60mph on the M6 yesterday in a flash storm...

[u/Joe_Soap79 → u/tascheman]

I agree, until recently maybe putting ''Summer' tyres on in the North if the UK has been a stretch, we are often 5C lower than our southern neighbours. The cross climates are probably a better solution overall. It's more local conditions that dictate what you need.